<p>Many Verizon landline customers experienced an outage Tuesday of up to five hours, after rats ate through cables in the Orange County town of Eatonville, Verizon officials said.</p><p>Verizon Media Relations Manager Bob Elik said that a rat nest was discovered in an aerial cable splicing case. </p><p>Elik said the rats could have affected cell traffic and internet services. The number of customers affected is unclear.</p><p>Elik expected phone and Internet service to have been restored by 7 p.m. Tuesday, but said crews were scheduled to work throughout the night to permanently fix the problem. </p><p>911 was not affected by the service failur</p>